Post-Gazette Click photo for larger image.

As I write this I'm on a Boeing 757, 31,000 feet up in the air en route from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles for the Television Critics Association summer press tour.

Also on my flight: Robert Bianco, former Post-Gazette TV critic who now writes for USA Today, and Deb Acklin, a WQED executive who's attending a PBS press tour session promoting Rick Sebak's latest special. She's never been to press tour and this is her opportunity to see how it all works, as I'm sure WQED will want to present its four-hour "War That Made America" miniseries to critics at this time next year.

(This is the second time I've ended up on the same flight as Bianco; in January we were joined by David Bianculli, TV critic for the New York Daily News and we all joked that if the plane went down resumes would be rolling out of printers across the country.)

This online journal is a new thing for me. I'm not really sure exactly what I'll be writing here, but I have an idea it will be sort of the behind-the-scenes tidbits.

Rob Owen, Post-Gazette And you think Pittsburgh has pollution? Check out this typical view of Downtown Los Angeles from Century City. Smog, smog everywhere. Click photo for larger image.

For the uninitiated, press tour is held twice a year -- two weeks in January for midseason shows, almost three weeks in July for fall programs. TCA members, more than 200, gather to question executives, stars and TV show writers and producers about not only their newest products but also their previous hits and misses.

In some quarters, TCA is viewed as nothing more than a gravy train for lazy reporters who do nothing but suck down drinks and food supplied by the networks. As vice president of TCA, I obviously take a different view. I get access to people at press tour -- both stars and executives -- that I couldn't get if I stayed in Pittsburgh. Plus, unlike movie junkets, the newspapers that send TV critics out here pay for their air travel and hotel rooms and many meals. Often, we can't help but eat network-provided food because there's no time between sessions to run out and buy something on our own. Besides, is a bagel for breakfast provided by ABC really going to make me like their abysmal sitcoms any better? I don't think so.

Press tour begins tomorrow with two days of presentations by PBS. Those sessions are sometimes as dull as PBS programming, but this year's lineup looks better than usual. Then we'll move on to two days of presentations from all the major broadcast networks (WB and UPN get one day each) and then cable is sandwiched into three days at the end of the tour, which ends July 23.

	Rob Owen, Post-Gazette The Westin Century Plaza in the Century City section of Los Angeles is home to the 2004 summer Television Critics Association press tour. Click photo for larger image.

On July 17, the TCA will hand out its annual TCA Awards. As veep, I was sort of charged with producing this year's show, something I've never done. So far -- knock wood -- so good. I've gotten the networks to provide the theme songs for all the winning series so we can play those songs as the winners come up to accept their awards (yes, I already know the winners, but I won't spill the beans).

TCA is run by volunteers elected to their positions, so the more complicated we make things, the more work for us. This is the 20th anniversary of the awards, so we're trying to jazz things up with a larger program than usual and a clip reel of past winners. TV Land is producing that for us.

I'm glad the awards show is in decent shape because I'm preparing to be blindsided by another issue. The hotel workers at unionized Los Angeles hotels are threatening a strike and hotel managers are threatening to lock them out. Here's hoping it doesn't come to that, because the hotel we're staying at, the Westin Century Plaza, would be one of the hotels affected.

Well, I'm on the ground in L.A. US Airways only managed to lose one of my two checked bags. I guess there's some consolation in that, though I'm not sure what it is.